The first Ice Walk

It was March 5 2005.  3 cars pulled into our driveway.  6 geocachers wanted to go over to Shediac Island to get the three geocaches that we had placed there.

It was a cold day as they headed over without snowshoes as there was little snow on the ice.  We were a little worried as we noticed that they did not have snow pants and some of them only had jeans which are cotton and can give you problems when wet.

We had plans but decided to stay home in case there was a problem. After a few hours we saw 2 of them walk off the island at a spot that was at least 2 kms from our place. They did not seem to be moving too fast.  

MA decided to take her homemade chili out of the freezer.  We made coffee and hot chocolate.  We also had a large plate of fancy desserts that were left over from a party the day before. Then two more cachers came off the island and then the last two. As time went by the distance between them got longer.

It took a very long time for the last two (Argus2 and Cache Jordan) to get to our place.  Everyone sat and ate and chatted and warmed up in front of the wood stove. Everyone except Cache Jordan who sat very quietly with her head down sipping her warm drink. It was at least 15 minutes before she got active. I was not sure if she was tired or cold or both or mad at Funky for having the idea to go over there.

In any event they all seemed to have a good time. Two year later we had the first official Ice Walk. We have had 4 of those now. I will post something about that another time. Meanwhile here are a few logs from the 2005 group. You will see that we got the name of the event from Funky.

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March 5, 2005 by Argus2 (1588 found)

Our group of 6 continued along the trail until it swung to the left and headed for the last cache on the island which we found quite easily. Great trails here! Took metal brainteaser puzzle and left an eyeglasses repair kit. Definitely want to come back in the summer.
For the return trip, we stayed together on the trail but when we hit the frozen bay, johnny.cache and Dragoon set a blistering pace that my aching muscles couldn’t keep up with. In fact, Funky and RAYAR were now pulling away from Cache Jordan and myself who were bringing up the rear. I always thought the return part of any trip seemed faster but after walking forever, the distant shore just kept getting more distant. Pretty soon the first group were no more than little dots against the white background. The second group had pulled away by about 800 meters while CJ and I were convinced that somebody kept moving the home shore further away as a cruel joke. Ironically the last step I took off the ice was a foot soaker- just to add to the experience!
I have found in my few years in this sport that there is a special camaraderie among fellow geocachers that is unparalleled and today was the best example of this. It started with FarsideX lending me his top of the line snowshoes and ended with Ma & Pa whom I finally got to meet. They had a planned event to attend to this afternoon, but stayed home to welcome the 6 tired, aching souls into their home and provided trays of cheese, crackers, grapes, most awesome cheesecake, coffee and the best chili. Thanks… it doesn’t get any better than this!

March 5, 2005 by FunkyNassau (1868 found)

In with 5 others (RAYAR, JC, CJ, Argus & Dragoon) as part of Ice Walk 2005 to Shediac Island. last one of the day for me of 4 I grabbed. took lock, left polished amythist, TFTC Funny thing is, with all the good we did turning CJ into a winter cacher, I think we undid it all with this hike… was a bit of a rough hike out… but was worth it in the end…. all in all I did some estimates on MapSource, and we hiked between 9.1-9.5 KM…. on the trip … fun stuff.

Huge thanks again to Ma and Pa for the hospitality after we got back to the shore… was truly going above and beyond.

March 6, 2005 by Cache Jordan (1591 found)

Well I won’t be saying quick easy find here, lol.I waited till next day to log my finds to decide if I lived or not lol. After much moaning and graoning night before I was up at 6 doing house work,,,,, so I lived and now can say I had a great time.Thanks all for putting up with slow me. And MA & PA for letting us park at your place, opening your home to us and wow feeding us. Your FANTASTIC. Cache Jordan